The Tenth Power
by RobotNinja
Summary: Nita and Kit get into a fight over someone else that compromises their friendship. But there's something strange about this new person that neither can put their fingers on. Nita quickly finds out, but can she save Kit before it's too late? NK, post Book5
1. Chapter 1

_Author Note: Hello everyone! As this is my first story, it might need work in the future. For now I'm not sure. If anyone thinks I need a Beta for this, can you please suggest so? Thank you..._

_Disclaimer: I do not own any Young Wizards stories, nor any Young Wizards. Either would be nice though._

"Darine, you can't do that."

"Come on, Nita. Dad won't even notice the toaster was missing if I bring it back in an hour or two. He said he was going to be at the shop late tonight."

Nita Callahan glanced up from the book she was working in to check the clock. Technically, her sister was right. Their dad wouldn't be home until at least six o'clock, and it was only three. Setting her pen down and closing the book, she pushed both across the table and stood up. Stretching her arms above her head and yawning loudly, she looked over at Dari.

"New spell?" Darine asked, putting the toaster back down on the counter and eyeing it longingly.

"Yeah, and don't change the subject, Squirt." Nita walked over to the island across from Darine and leaned against it, folding her arms and watching her sister. Darine wrinkled he nose at Nita. "Dad might not notice the toaster was missing for an hour or two when he gets back… but he will notice when it gets up and starts walking around tomorrow morning when he wants a piece of toast."

Darine scowled and picked up Spot, who was on the counter next to the toaster, and rubbed his shiny outside lovingly. "You're no fun, really Neets. Anyway, why are you still here? Dad left a note saying to fend for myself because you and Kit had a mission to complete." Walking over to the table, she set Spot down and she lovingly watched him stretch his legs before making a bee-line for the refrigerator.

"You're going to eat us out of house and home if you don't stop for ten minuets."

Darine smiled at Nita as she opened the door, searching through the contents of the refrigerator. "Hardly. And now you're the one avoiding questions." She grabbed a jar of jelly and closed the door, setting it out on the counter as she rummaged through the cabinets for the peanut butter and a loaf of bread. "Is it just me or is dad starting to hide stuff on us? Do you want one?"

Nita sighed and shook her head, going back to the kitchen table to grab her manual. "Kit was supposed to be over here ten minuets ago."

"Ah… he stood you up again..." Dari said wisely, trying to hold a straight face before she broke out into laugher.

"I'm not being stood up, Squirt. Kit's probably walking Ponch, or finishing homework…" Nita trailed off and rolled her eyes. This was the fourth time Kit was late this week, and it was only Friday.

Setting the knife in the sink and putting the rest of the food away, Darine picked up her sandwich and looked questioningly at Nita. "Don't give me that look." She said through a full mouth. "What are you guys working on anyway? The gnomes still?"

Nita looked at her sister carefully. "They're not gnomes, for your information. They're S'hi!g. They'd kill you if they heard you calling them gnomes. Anyway, they're being difficult. A new tribe of them moved into Central Park last week and decided to make their burrows right under the trees, who don't like getting their root systems disturbed. It's a mess, but nothing we can't fix." Darine nodded in understanding, she was used to solving disputes between different life forms. Nita continued, "And… I was working on a spell that would make the trees roots impenetrable to the S'hi!g's tools, but it's nearly impossible to replicate the material sequence." She sighed and ran her hands though her hair. "I need Kit to take a look at it, honestly.He might have an idea what to do."

Dari shrugged. "You better get out of here soon then, if you want to make it back for dinner. Dad will flip out otherwise. You haven't been home all week."

"I know. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can." Nita picked up her manual and went out the back door, grabbing her shoes that were on the stairs. She paused for a moment and thought better, sticking her head back inside to say to Darine, "Stay out of trouble. Or else." Closing the door again, she looked out onto her backyard. Smiling, Nita made her way down the stairs, skipping the last one as she bounded across the yard. She could hear the grass mutter at her lightly, but she rolled her eyes, ignoring it as she walked up to the Rowan tree.

"Need anything, dear?" it asked her slowly, in a motherly voice.

"No, thanks though. Weather's been nice lately, huh?" Nita slipped down to the ground between her roots, taking refuge from the sun in her shade. Just for a second, before she'd get up to throw the transit circle around herself and pop over to Kit's house.

"Beautiful out. Not too hot. How's the project going?" She ruffled her leaves and stretched slightly towards the dazzling sun.

Nita paused for a minuet and looked up through her gnarled branches. She knew it was wrong, if not impossible, to lie in the Speech. "Not so good. We thought it would be easier than it is."

"And Kit? He hasn't been back here lately."

Frowning, Nita sighed. She got up, in the process smoothing out the wrinkles in her jeans and straightening her shirt. That's because we aren't getting along so well. Nita said to herself. Instead though, she said to her friend "I don't know." She walked out from under the tree and out to the open grass. Turning back, she said "I'll be home soon, I think." Nita reached into the back of her mind and pulled out the transit spell for Kit's backyard, quickly tying her name onto the end of it in a wizard's knot. She held the spell in her hands for a second, looking at the glowing, multi-colored writing, before letting it drop to the ground around her.

"Take care, child." The tree murmured before she triggered the spell.

Nita nodded slightly to the tree as she read the words hastily, activating the spell. The air around her compressed and she was immediately blinded by a white light. Her ears rang in protest of the deafening crack that resounded inside the transit circle from the spell. Just as it began though, it ended. She blinked her eyes, her sight and hearing returning quickly as she looked around Kit's backyard.

Touching his mind gently with hers, she said, almost questioningly, '**Kit?**', but there was no response. She felt his warm presence on the other side, but he was distracted by something else he was working on, clearly blocking out all other distractions. Kit and his homework, Nita said to herself with a smile as she walked up to the backdoor. She knocked twice and let herself in. There, on the living room couch, she saw Ponch sleeping, his legs up in the air and twitching madly, an obvious smile formed across his doggy lips. She tiptoed up the stairs, careful not to wake him. She dodged around Carmela's mess in the hallway, and stopped at Kit's bedroom door. She sucked in a shallow breath and willed herself to knock once, sharp, on his closed door. Nita could hear his muffled voice on the other side. Frowning to herself, she knocked again, harder and louder this time, and he yelled back.

"Just a second, mom!" A minuet later, Kit opened the door, the cordless phone in hand, and stopped when he saw Nita standing there. "Nita, you're early. I thought we were leaving at three. I was going to meet you over at your house anyway, wasn't I?"

"Kit, it is three." Nita said impatiently as she pushed against his arm that rested on the doorframe and slipped into his room. She strode across his room and grabbed his alarm clock next to the bed. Holding it up in triumph, she pointed to the digits said "Three thirty-two to be exact!" Kit made a face at her and checked his watch, and jammed the phone back into the cradle on his desk.

"Sorry." Kit said, still standing there, looking frazzled with her intrusion.

Nita sat down on his immaculately made bed, noticing the piles of books and papers strewn about his room. She fiddled with the hem of her green tank top, doing anything not to look at Kit. "So… who were you talking to?" she asked.

Kit turned his back to her and began fidgeting with the books on his desk, putting loose paper in the open pages and closing them up. "Uh… Some girl. She's from my math class." He stacked the books while he spoke, opening his backpack and shoving a few of them in. Nita frowned even harder into his turned back and said slowly, "Oh." She knew Kit helped kids from his classes, especially math, but he never forgot about anything he planned with her before. She didn't like it one bit. "Is that what you've been doing all week?"

Kit stopped what he was doing and paused, holding his manual loosely in his left hand. "Yeah." He put the book down carefully and leaned against the desk, supporting himself with both hands.

"We don't have to go today. If you're too busy… you know… helping people… we can go tomorrow. Or Sunday…" Nita said as she felt herself frowning even harder. She felt herself become angry with Kit. What's wrong with him! He's my partner! He's my best friend! Nothing's supposed to come between that.

Nita could understand forgetting one day or two, but almost an entire week! That was far too much. She cocked her head and looked hard into the back of his navy blue shirt. Nita wished he would turn around and look at her. She pressed on, "Who is she?"

Kit turned around, a pile of books in his hands, and looked at Nita like she had betrayed him. He could tell just by looking her in her eyes that she was being cautious; but he could tell she was angry with him too. Angry for what! I can have other friends if I want! "Jen. Her name is Jen." Nita scowled at him. Kit turned around and threw the books down on the desk and changed his mind about being nice to her. If she wants to fight, then fine. "She's a nice girl Nita," '**Nicer to me than you've been lately!**' He added mentally, and he knew she heard him. He even felt her, even if just slightly, become hurt through their mental connection. "She just needed some help with what we've been doing lately! That's it! So don't interrogate me over it." Kit snapped off the end of the sentence, and words we're bitter.

She flopped back onto his bed, kneading her eyes with the palms of her hands. Why did Kit have to be so irritating sometimes? She never had heard of this girl before! "Look, Kit…" she paused and sucked in a breath, grinding her teeth in the process out of frustration. She needed Kit back for real this time, not just as her partner, but her best friend too. "Ever since my mom--" '**died**'. Nita knew Kit heard it, she felt him looking at her sharply, carefully, but she continued on. "After what happened to my mom... We haven't been the same. What's wrong! Tell me, Kit… I want to help! I don't get it! You don't talk to me anymore!"

"And that's all my fault then, Neets?" She winced at his use of her pet name. "You're the one who ignored me for two months! It's like I don't even know you anymore!

Nita pinched her eyes together. She had changed, but who wouldn't? She'd been through so much in the past year, it wasn't her fault, and Kit had no right to blame it all on her. "And you haven't been there for me when I needed you!" she spat back at him, sitting up and holding her chin high to keep the tears from falling. "More than ever! You screwed up this time, so don't blame it on me!"

Kit glared at her. Girls are so sensitive, he thought to himself. "I gave you space! You wanted space, and I gave it to you. So, now I'm the bad one for trying to help! It's not my fault. I'm allowed to have other friends, you know." He softened slightly, when he saw Nita's chin trembling and her eyes shiny and red. Her brown curls clung to her chin and quivered slightly. "What do you want me to do, Neets?" He breathed out through clenched teeth.

"Nothing, Kit. Forget about it. I have other things to do. Jen can help you with the S'hi!g too while you're at it." Nita got up and strode out of his room with her head held high and down the stairs. Kit heard the backdoor slam shut and the loud crack of a transit circle being hastily activated.

As soon as he was sure she was gone, Kit turned and flopped face down onto his bed, where Nita sat only seconds before. The sheets were still warm from her body pressed upon them, and he could smell her spicy ginger shampoo. He turned over hastily and let out a long breath. "Nita's over reacting." He said out loud, to no one in particular.

Just then, Ponch slid in through the door, tentatively, his tail down. Looking up at Kit, he said "Nita's not happy."

Kit groaned loudly at the dog. "She's livid."

Ponch paced around the room, pausing at the bed to look back up at Kit. "Because of you?" Kit looked down and nodded at him. "You didn't say sorry? What did you do?" Kit closed his mouth and stared at the ceiling. "Poor Nita. She always brings me something yummy." Ponch sat down on his back haunches, looking sadly up at Kit.

He rolled his eyes, tucking his hands under his head, and said, "Get out of here. You're always thinking of your stomach first." Ponch got up and looked at Kit once more. "She was wrong anyway," Kit added.

Ponch turned around and shook his head, making his way back towards the door. He turned around to face Kit sadly; his eyes looked at Kit as if to say "So?" Instead, he said, "We all love Nita." Then, Ponch slipped out of the door as quietly as he came in, leaving Kit to toil in his own mess.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: This chapter happens to be a little gory, and I apologize to anyone squeamish, this chapter might not be up your alley. Anyway, this is just a bridge chapter to the next one, and I wanted to post to get some people a little more interested in the story. So, sorry if it isn't long enough for your liking. I won't be able to update until January 27th, after my midterms are over. What I would like though is a few more reviews... and thank you very much to **SouthernWitch13,**who is my first reviewer ever! I hope many more will follow after and like this story as much as she did. Now, read and enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own the Young Wizards series, nor the characters that you recognize; only the plot and those characters that I happened to dream up._

The first thing Nita felt was a dull pain in her left leg, as though a very large animal had sunk its teeth in and dragged her around. Nita opened one eye cautiously, expecting the worst. As her vision in it cleared, she became slightly aware of her surroundings. Rain was pouring down outside, she could hear the thick patter upon the rooftop and a hallowed gurgle as it poured down the gutters. A clap of thunder could be heard as it struck the ground somewhere close outside. It slowly dawned on her that she was no longer in her bed, and possibly no longer even in her house. Nita was sitting in a chair, a terribly painful wooden chair. She sat slumped forward with her body resting against loosely wound restraints; it was a very uncomfortable position.

She winced as she sat up, her back hurting from being in such a disfiguring position. Slowly opening her other eye, Nita looked around the room. She panicked. _'Where am I?!' _She swallowed quickly, fighting down the lump in her throat. She needed to remain calm. _'How is it possible I ended up…here?_ _Why am I in this…oh shit.' _Nita's heart jumped. It was school. She was in some abandoned classroom. She mentally swore for not realizing it sooner.

A clap of thunder startled Nita, and sent more shadows scurrying across the walls. It was still dark out, but Nita noticed the clock on the wall said 12:01. She pulled against the restraints, finding that whoever tied her down foolishly used rope that had dry rot. Brushing the rope away, she shuddered, her hair prickling at the nape of her neck. Quickly, she checked the connection between her and Kit, as a cry for help, _'Even if he is mad at me…'_ , but there was nothing. Not even the faint buzz of him being on the other side. Just dull silence. And to make matters worse, she was without her manual. Nita was totally vulnerable.

Carefully, getting up from her seat in the strangely deserted classroom, Nita made her way towards the only door. Slowly inching it open, she peaked her head out of it and glanced up and down the halls. Nita gasped loudly, and recoiled back into the classroom, alarmed. She slowly sucked a breath in, feeling extremely nauseous. Closing her eyes, she counted to ten and looked back out.

Throughout the entire hallway, where students once bustled about, talking and gossiping about the daily events, lay their bodies. Mangled, their blood pooled on the floor. There was a constant dripping sound as new blood slowly seeped out of the wounds and onto the once freshly-waxed floor. Some of the finely attuned students were missing body parts, some barely touched, but all had a strange mark on the back of their open skulls; some kind of other-world looking symbol inside of an upside down triangle.

Wincing as Nita fully opened the door, she snapped her eyes shut and held her breath, stepping out and closing the door behind her. Slowly inching her eyes open, she still held her breath. _'Like my day can get any worse. Oh, Powers that Be…' _Tentatively, Nita tested the air, afraid for the pungent smell of rotting corpses to fill her lungs. It wasn't there though, just the unusual smell of musty linins. She gulped, and started slowly walking down the hallway, sliding past the disfigured corpses and stepping anywhere there was blood.

As she slid down the hallway, she noticed a long silver sword protruding from the back of a dainty girl. She had on a soft, white lacy top, and a small brown skirt. Both were stained with her own blood, as well as the others around her. Her soft golden blonde hair fell into her face, but the skin on the back of her skull was ripped off, exposing the bone, where the symbol was carved in. Leaning closer, Nita slowly inched her fingers around the hilt, marveling at the intricate designs carved into the red stone.

Squinting her eyes closed, Nita thought; '_I need this. I might be…attacked by whoever, whatever, did this to…' _She calmed herself, and pulled out the sward in one tug, the girl gasped, and fresh blood seeped from the wound. Tilting her head up towards Nita, she opened her death-filled eyes, exposing the ghostly whiten irises. Nita shrieked, and stumbled away from the girl. Slowly, she opened her mouth, looking directly at Nita, and sputtered out "Run…" Blood flecked her lips, dribbling down the front of her shirt, pooling in the small crevice of her breasts.

Nita's face became contorted with an utter look of horror. She began to slowly back away, turning to look up and down the hall several times. Shock overcame her. This wasn't any school, this was _her_ school. She had just pulled a sword from the back of some kid she went to school with. '_Oh, Powers, please don't let me find Kit dead! Please, oh please, oh please…'_

Nita turned hastily, trying to orient herself in the school, trying to find the nearest exist.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her roughly from behind and forced their hand over her mouth, preventing her to scream out. Nita struggled against the hand that forced her mouth closed, making her breathing sharp and ragged. She was flipped roughly over by who ever was taking her away, and thrown over their shoulder. She winced in pain as Nita felt one of her ribs break. Nita desperately kicked her legs against her captor's chest, but it didn't seem to make a difference. Gasping in fright, the hulking figure flung open the janitor's closet and threw her inside; slamming the door shut just as Nita barely looked up, noticing her captor was a tall man in a tan trench coat and a bowler's hat, and then everything was plunged into darkness.

Nita winced; her ribs and leg ached terribly. She laid the way she was thrown in the closet, sprawled in a heap near the door, her face jarred against the cold tile and her breathing hard and ragged. There was silence. Moaning, she tried to roll over to her back to take the weight off her chest, but someone whispered from the back of the room "No, don't, it's broken." Nita panicked, trying desperately to pull herself up and get out of the closet, but someone placed a firm hand on her shoulder. Looking up into the darkness, she felt a figure bend down near her face. Nita heard whoever it was fumbling around, a click of an overhead light, a faint light lit up the small closet. Nita gasped.

Kit was staring back down at her.

"Kit! Oh, Kit! I'm so glad to see you! What happened? Kit are you okay? Please, please don't be mad at me from earlier, I'm so, so sorry! You don't know how happy I am! Oh, Powers!" She struggled to continue speaking as she inhaled quickly, her face pink and flushed from being so easily startled.

"Shhh…" Kit shook his head and pressed a finger against her lips to quiet her quickly. Nita flushed an even brighter shade of pink, and nodded quickly. Smiling, Kit removed his fingers. Her lips tingled excitedly where they had been only moments before.

"Kit, why?" Nita asked softly, as she looked up into his soft, brown eyes. They held no angered emotions from earlier that day.

Kit looked down at Nita thoughtfully, the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile. "Why what, Neets?"

"Me, you… Why are we here? Who was that guy? Where's my **_manual_**? WHY IS OUR ENTIRE SCHOOL POPULATION DEAD?! I don't know Kit! Why?!" Nita threw her hands above her head, feeling her rib bones grinding together as she did so. She winced and threw them back down.

Kit shook his head "Nita, you'll see, you'll see soon, okay? Stop talking, please, Neets. Talking isn't good." Frowning slightly, he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and rubbed his hand up and down her back in attempt to soothe her.

Nita blushed even harder at Kit's touch and closed her eyes. Her mind went blank and she felt herself falling towards Kit, falling towards his warmth and affection. She smiled and let herself fall, down into the dark reaches of her mind, feeling Kit scoop her up in his strong arms before her connection with the outside world was lost.

Nita felt the cold rushing in around her, and she thrashed around, trying to open her eyes again, but found she couldn't. She tried to scream out for Kit, to feel him with her mind, but he wasn't there. A hallow, distant voice echoed around her, "It's coming... and It's going to get you just like It got every one of us..." Nita struggled even harder, feeling herself being held down by something.

* * *

Nita's eyes flew open as she sat up straight. She was in her own bedroom, hot and sweaty. Breathing heavily, she regained her composure. Her bed sheets were tangled about her legs and waist, her hair a knotted mess. Sighing, Nita pressed a hand firmly to her chest to feel her heart beating rapidly, she could feel the sweat trickling down her forehead and her tank top was soaked through almost. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Nita slumped back down into her bed, only to stare at her ceiling as she wondered aloud, "Oh, Powers, what the hell was _that_?"

* * *

Several blocks away, Kit Rodriguez awoke in a terror. His heart was racing as he tried to remember what had just happened. He had awoken from the most frightening dream he ever had, and he was afraid Nita was in trouble. Even more he worried that _he_ was in trouble, because he was worrying about Nita when he should still be angry with her. 

Slipping out of bed, he stumbled into the hallway and into the bathroom. Leaving the lights off, Kit could see his ghostly reflection in the mirror, his tousled hair and his skin shiny from sweat. Grabbing onto the sink for support, he breathed, and then turned the water on. After splashing his face with it twice, Kit decided it was a dream, but he was still worried about Nita. Testing out the connection, Kit felt Nita on the other side, wide awake, and rather startled as well.

He furrowed his brow and thought back to earlier that day as he walked back to his room. Closing the door behind him, he crawled back into his bed with his manual. Flipping it open absentmindedly, he saw the directory page open in front of him. Kit ran a finger down the page in thought and then muttered the words "Callahan, Nita.". The book prompted at him "Message?" Kit sighed, and shut the book in vain, tossing it back on his nightstand.


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: Hello again! I'm updating sooner than I thought I would because I was forced to entertain myself with my laptop while I was at a college conference for four hours. This chapter is sort of boring but it's going to get much better soon, that I can promise. Some of you might be all like "Oh well, this isn't NK fluff, so this story sucks, but what sort of story is it that just starts with them making out? Sorry, but it's really not worth having something if you don't have to fight for it to appreciate it. Anyway, this story sort of has a rough outline I wrote down to follow, but I keep getting a million ideas as to where to take this. I can't really say it's AU though, because I haven't read past the 5th book yet (isn't that pathetic?). I should stop babbling now and let you guys read, but I'm pretty well aware that everyone skips over Author's Notes most of the time. So here's two my **two**__reviewers on the last chapter, **katiebug123** and **SouthernWitch13**(again!). Thanks oodles._

_Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, plot or book rights, y'all._

Nita caught herself doodling in the margins of her notebook. It was third period Biology class. The rest of the class was asleep, especially when it was a Monday morning, but not Nita. She was always awake.

Nita loved biology. She loved figuring out the way living things interacted with each other. She loved cell division and evolution theories, and she loved conducting experiments. Nita Callahan loved Biology so much she sat at the front of the class directly under the nose of the teacher, so no one could get in her way of seeing the board or asking questions.

Today, Nita wanted nothing to do with Biology.

Mrs. Simmons was busy going into excited detail of Bioengineering. In fact, she was too busy scratching notes on the board with her white chalk and pointing around the classroom with exaggerated gestures to notice her prize student not paying attention. Nita sat, in her usual desk, with her head propped up lazily on her arm. On her desk, her once flawless notebook was getting a good beating. She stopped taking notes as soon as Mrs. Simmons turned her back. Now, she was busy drawing little dancing fruits across the page. Although Nita just wanted to go back to bed, she couldn't. Her nightmare haunted her. She had barely slept in the past two days.

Saturday morning, after Nita woke, she found she couldn't go back to bed. She decided to get up and make breakfast for herself, while double checking the spell she finished on Friday for any errors she might have missed. After she made herself a small pile of toast (and eyed the toaster accordingly, waiting for it to start complaining and prancing about on the counter), scrambled two eggs and poured herself a glass of orange juice. After she had finished, she finally opened her manual to the directory page, casually checking Kit's status. Nita scolded herself in doing so, she had no reason to care about him after what he said to her, but she couldn't help being curious. With a raised eyebrow, she noted that his status had changed to "Pending" while hers remained the same. Did this mean that they were done for good? Was Kit still her partner? Or did he have a mission of his own to complete like Nita had done for her mother? Perturbed, but mostly for herself, she went on with her morning.

After Nita had gotten dressed, she popped over to Central Park one last time to give her spell a try. She had perfected it as much as possible, and if it didn't work, she couldn't think of anything else that would. After activating the spell, she felt the magic beginning to work, taking hold of the surrounding area and fortifying the native trees against the foreign attacks. Nita smiled. For once something had gone alright, but she would still have to check back in a few days to see the progress.

To be honest, Nita's weekend wasn't nearly as terrible as she thought it would be. The problem was, though, that she couldn't get any sleep. Nita found herself up for hours and hours worrying about Kit, Jen, her nightmare and mostly herself. Finally when Monday morning came, Nita was exhausted. She was thankful to have school as a proper distraction though.

School soon proved that it wasn't even an ample distraction as it had always been.

"Nita? Nita Callahan, dear?" Nita looked up from her doodles to see Mrs. Simmons standing in front of her. She bent down to give Nita a good look in the face. "Nita, are you with us, honey?"

Nita shook her head 'yes' and blushed, looking down at her notebook. She cleared her throat and said, her voice dry, "Sorry, Mrs. Simmons." Nita sighed, and flipped the page over, trying to concentrate and take notes.

Mrs. Simmons nodded, and continued with the class. Nita slumped down in her chair. She could hear the girls in the back of the class giggling and whispering. Nita caught part of their conversation, and there was a very good chance it was about her. They made sure to use the words "geek" "nerd" "dyke" and "weirdo" numerous amounts of times. Nita grew hot where she sat, and she wished she could say something, but she knew it was no use. Instead, she pricked her ears in their direction, taking note of the horrendous things they were saying about her.

Their conversation soon changed though, and for the better… or worse if you were Nita. One brunette, Tiffany, with an ordinary face, a loud mouth and a penchant for expensive gadgets, said something to equally ditzy friend, Sarah.

"That new girl has the biggest ass I've ever seen."

Nita could hear Sarah laugh quietly. "Of course she does, the boys love it. Did you check out her car though? I'm going to make my parents buy me the same one in celestial black. It's custom… it has to be. I've never seen anything like it before."

"Custom? I don't know about that. She's from California though, right? Like, she has to be semi-famous. What do her parents do for a living? They're like… freaking loaded. What's her name again?"

Sarah was quite a second before she responded. "I don't know if she's from California. That's what she telling everyone but she's a liar. I can tell. You know I can always pick out those girls that lie. They have those eyes." Sarah paused again and Nita quietly shifted her notebook around so she could take notes and watch the two out of the corner of her eye. "Anyway, Tasha told me her name was Jen or something. She's a stupid whore. Did you check out what she was wearing Friday?"

"Gabbana and Kors, right?" Tiffany nodded, watching Sarah with rapt attention as she spoke, "It's all designer stuff. Who does she think she is?"

Nita could see Tiffany glance around the classroom before leaning into Sarah. Nita leaned over in her desk slightly too, so she could still keep an eye on them as they spoke. "She isn't anyone. That's who she is. But she thinks she's better than the rest of us, and god knows the boys all think so too. She has them all, like, wrapped around her fingers, every one of them. Michael hasn't even asked me to Homecoming yet, because he wants to ask_ her_, and she only moved here in freaking August! We've been best friends since, like, fifth grade! And we hooked up this summer too! I can't believe it, Sarah! Did you know she—"

Tiffany and Mrs. Simmons found themselves cut off mid-sentence as Nita fell onto the floor. All of her classmates sniggered loudly and rolled their eyes, but Mrs. Simmons fretted over her. "Nita, dear, are you sure you're alright? Do you want to go to the nurse? I can write you a pass. Here, just take a quick trip down there and let her have a look at you. Here, don't forget your homework, Nita."

Before Nita knew what was happening she found herself, books in one hand and a pass in the other, pushed out the science door into the hallway by Mrs. Simmons. Sighing to herself, she looked down at the tiles forlornly. There was no way she was going down to the nurse. That woman was a terror, and made Nita's day a living hell when she went down there three weeks ago. She pressed Nita, quite unabashedly and loudly, "Are you sure you don't have your period? Let me have a look. You could be a late bloomer. Are you sure you just have a headache? Here, take a tampon. What do you mean no? Advil? You want Advil? Well, alright, if you say so, but I am the nurse. You think I know what I'm doing." Nita wasn't venturing back down into her lair anytime soon.

Instead, she took a look around the hallway, checking for teachers on duty to catch kids out of class and punish them accordingly. After making sure the coast was clear, Nita walked across the hall to the stairs and down two flights to the library. Not only did Nita need some serious quite time, she needed to check the student database on the computer. She needed to know the last name of this Jen girl everyone, and Kit, was so worked up about.

After sneaking in the back door to the library, she evaded the librarian and slipped into the chairs in front of one of the computers. Quickly, she logged in and accessed the database. Only then did Nita pause, a crushing feeling coming down upon her. She realized she didn't even know her last name. How was she going to look her up? Nita's fingers hovered above the keyboard before she punched into the query 'Jen', giving her 60 results.

Tapping her fingers on the desk in slight frustration, Nita muttered "Think, think! You can do this Nita; it's just a stupid name." Running her fingers across the keyboard again, she modified the query results to her grade with the name 'Jen', modified August. Their data bases were modified on a marking period basis, and were basically useless, but Nita knew that if Jen moved to the town in August then her database would have been updated then, unlike the rest of the school which was last updated June of last school year. Nita sat nervous as the curser blinked, gathering data.

She got a match.

Skimming over the data, Nita frowned. Jéan, known to everyone else as 'Jen', (Her name sounded very wrong to Nita. It wasn't even proper French.) moved from Montreal, Canada, not California to their town in August. Nita rolled her eyes _'stupid girls can't tell Canada from California'_. But the weird part was that she had applied in July, before she even moved into the states. Nita frowned, and continued reading. Her last name was LeBlanc, but her parents were unnoted in the database as well as any vital information. Nita stopped, looking over the top of the computer to see a group of kids walking by. Not wanting to get caught, she quickly printed out the material and logged off the computer, weaving her way through the rows of books in search of something good to read for the rest of the period. 

* * *

Meanwhile… 

Kit was sitting in his 3rd period Math class, Algebra 2, honors. He kept taping his shoes in rhythm on the floor, all the while biting the end of his pencil. Truthfully, Kit couldn't pay attention. Not with Jen sitting close to his right, her chair angled towards him. She leaned forward enough so he could feel her breath on his neck and her palm splayed against his back as she watched him over his shoulder. They were working on a group assignment, and Jen was his partner. No one ever wanted to be his partner, ever. Well, aside from Nita, but she was in regular math. Now, Kit had found a new friend. Once, Kit could hardly feel the memory, but he vaguely remembered that Nita had made him feel like this too. But now it was Jen, his _new _friend, who just happened to be making him very nervous.

Jen tutted, puckering her plump, cherry-glossed lips, and smiled as Kit sat in frustration. He was trying to concentrate on the problem, only to find his mind thinking about anything but the derivative worksheet in front of him. Jen leaned over and placed her hand over his, slowly sliding the pencil out of his hand and turning the paper so she could see it better. Kit could feel the rest of the guys in the room looking at him. They were growing short-tempered with the Kit and Jen's very… _public_…affections for him.

"Oh, look Kit." She purred, tilting her head towards his. He willed himself to raise his eyes to meet hers, shy smiling. She smiled back, boring into his soft brown eyes with her lurid gray ones. Jen looked back down at the paper and started writing out a complex formula, punching in all the components and solving it. "Do you see the derivative now? It's so easy, Kit… I know you can do this, you're the _best_ tutor I've ever had for math." As Jen set the pencil down on the table, her hand sipped from his back to his thigh, and gave it a squeeze. Kit was becoming uncomfortable, not only with Jen's closeness, but the fact that he knew it was obvious his cheeks were flushed red by now.

Jen finished up the rest of the worksheet while Kit sat staring at her. When she got up to hand it in to the teacher, Kit took a quick look around the classroom, and a boy, he was pretty sure his name was Michael, in his football lettermen's jacket pounded his fist into his other hand and pointed to Kit, mouthing "After school, bitch." Michael, or maybe it was Matthew, was one of those tall, well built boys that had girls practically hanging off of him. Kit hated boys like Michael. He smirked to the rest of his buddies, all equally imposing boneheaded thugs, as they checked out Jen, whispering among each other, "Take a look at that ass!" and "Damn, she's a hot bitch…". Jen noticed of course, but continued to sit by Kit, constantly flirting with him. She probably was doing it just to aggravate the boys, who were clearly more her type of men than Kit was.

As the bell rang to signal the end of the period, Kit grabbed his books in a quick attempt to get away from Jen before he made a fool of himself, and escape Michael's gang before he got beat up. That, and he needed to get his materials of out his locker for next period. But before he could make it to the door, Jen caught up with him, grabbing his forearm with her soft fingers. "Hey, don't be in such a hurry to leave. Do you want me to drive you home after school again?" she asked.

Kit nodded slightly, not making eye contact with Jen. "I guess so." She looked a little hurt because Kit wasn't more excited, and he quickly added, "Of course. Do you want to stay after for dinner with us? My mom will be okay with it, we can get the homework done too, if you want."

Jen smiled, casually slipping an arm around Kit like Nita used to. "That would be perfect Kit. I'm so happy I've made some friends here. And you're just so nice. I wish I had friends like you… back in my old school." Jen paused, and Kit could see her eyes look tired, maybe a little older too. She sighed and pulled away, ducking in the other direction before yelling back at Kit, her eyes sparkling with laughter "Meet me at my car after the bell or you're stuck walking home!" 

* * *

Nita was not happy at all.

Of course she made it through the day. That was to be expected. It was Nita. Nita could make it through a school day even when the worst happened. But the thing that really got to her was Kit had not waited for her after school. Not only had she not seen Kit since Friday, Nita was aggravated that she would never see him again. The least he could do was leave a message in her manual saying he was sorry but he needed space, but Kit couldn't even manage that.

Now, Nita was practically fuming. But there was only one way to fix this problem, and that was to visit Tom and Carl to get the lowdown on this new "Jen" character. They knew everything that was going on in the neighborhood, and if "Jen" thought she was so smart, she was going to have to deal with Nita first. This was one mystery that needed to be solved as soon as possible. Nita didn't even stop home first and pop over to their house; she walked directly from school, and met a quizzical Tom at the door, his one eyebrow raised questioningly as he stood in the door.

"Nita, why didn't you send us a message or call first? Carl isn't even home. Is this something about the project you just completed? Here, come in and let me get you a Coke or something." He stepped out of the way and let Nita through, taking her coat and backpack to put on a bench by the door. Waving her into the kitchen, Tom grabbed a soda out of the fridge and gave it to her. "So, what's up?"

Nita paused for a minuet and then began, setting her drink down on the counter. "Have you checked the manual lately on Kit?" she asked.

"Nope, not since last Wednesday anyway. Why?" Tom got his manual out and flipped around in the directory, finding Kit Rodriguez's information. He smiled and looked at Nita. "So you guys did finish the Central Park project! That's fantastic. How did it go? Did the protean spell work well?"

"Well, that's the problem. Kit didn't help me finish the problem… He's being pigheaded and wouldn't help. And now his status is weird. I haven't seen status like that in awhile, and his power levels keep jumping like mad. But that's not why I came here. Do you know anything about a girl that moved into the neighborhood in the past month? Her name is Jen, I think."

Tom took a sip from his Coke, thinking. "Ah… Nope. Not at all."

"Here's the weird part, Tom. Kit's been hanging out with this girl named Jen for the past two weeks and not me, and that's why his status changed… and we got in a fight," Nita winced when Tom looked at her sadly. But she continued on, "And no one's heard of her before. I got her name from the school directory today, but it's not even Jen, its Jéan LeBlanc. It says she transferred here from Canada, but there wasn't anything on her parents. I printed it out and went over it in Lunch. There's nothing, not even a street address. Just a name and an age and an _old_ place. I don't get it."

"There are two things you can do, Neets. The problem I see is that we can't _theoretically_ tell you to do them, but I can _suggest_ against doing them." He winked at her. "Anyway, I think it's weird too. I'll have to ask Carl, he's more up to date on these things than I am, but I think you might be onto something. I know what you're thinking though, Nita, but if she was another entity then Kit would have picked up on it in an instant. I have a hunch as to what she might be, or your school sucks at keeping a good record… but you **can't** do two things. One option would be just follow her home one day and take it from there, or you could take an appeal to the high council of living to see if they have anything, but they won't be bothered with you unless you have something major on your hands. I would suggest you wait for Carl to get back to you. I'll have him leave a message in your manual, is that okay?" Tom took her empty glass to the sink as he spoke, rinsing it out and putting it away in the dishwasher.

Nita walked back out to get her jacket and backpack. "Yeah, I guess. Thanks, Tom, really." She put both of them back on.

Tom said as he closed the door behind her, "Just play it cool Nita, we'll get to the bottom of this."

As soon as Nita was out on the sidewalk she forgot to mention the nightmare to Tom. Half wanting to turn around and ring his doorbell again, she decided to ask him about it later, writing herself a note in the back of the manual, scrawled messily as she walked, -a_sk Tom about dream_.

Nita, on the other hand, had no intention to just 'play it cool' as Tom had suggested. She was going to get to the bottom of this and get Kit back if it was the last thing she did.


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: The ages of the characters may be sort of confusing, but I've decided to make Kit 16 and Nita 17 and Jen… well you get the picture. Anyway, that would make Carmela around 19, correct? So that means she's in college. I'm sorry if the time is sort of skewed, I haven't quite gotten that entirely figured out yet. And apparently I botched Dair's name in previous chapters, which I'll get around to fixing in the next week or so… I'm really sorry about that; I didn't notice it until today. I really am going to assume that the story takes place in New Jersey, due to the constant reference to the NYC skyline in the books, but I don't think Diane Duane even mentions if they do. IF they do, I'm no good for setting; I live in rural New Jersey and have about zero knowledge of the urban area, I've only been there 20 times or so. Tips could be useful, if anyone has an idea of what the area is like. I should really stop by the library and pick up the other books in the series so I can get caught up and stop looking like an ignorant retard. Much thanks to my Chapter Three reviewers, **clockkeeper2** and **SouthernWitch13**. They make me happy. (By the way, I should be coming up with Chapter Titles soon… I hope!) Now read, and make sure you review!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to the Young Wizards Series._

._  
_

After the ninth period bell had rung, Kit practically sprinted down the hall to his locker. He didn't want to keep Jen waiting for him. He was so excited that every nerve of his body was on overdrive, and he dropped his books twice in the process of trying to get them into his locker. Stuffing the rest of his possessions into his backpack, Kit slammed his locker shut and hurried towards the front doors, ignoring the girl next to him who jumped out of the way while giving him an angry look.

He nearly tumbled down the stairs to the side parking lot because he was in such a hurry. Quickly, he caught himself and took a quick look around for Jen. It wasn't too hard to spot her. She stood out in crowds with her delicate, tall frame. Few people drove to school anyway, there were less expensive ways to get around in their town, but Kit immediately knew why Jen drove. She had the most amazing car he had ever seen.

Kit could fully appreciate cars. Aside from the fact he had quite intelligent conversations with them every now and then; they were amazing, beautiful things. There was a shapely elegance that hid the brutal interior of the machines. It intrigued him nearly as much as it scared him.

Jen was leaning up against a soft, silver-brushed convertible, her arms folded neatly across her stomach as she smiled at him. Catching himself before he became slack-jawed, Kit stopped before Jen, his eyes darting between her and her car. "Hey…" He nearly whispered. He couldn't find his voice for the life of him.

She simply beamed back at Kit, and gave him a small nudge with her hands. "How was the rest of your day?" She asked as she stuck her arm out to take his backpack, placing it in the backseat.

Kit nodded slightly as his hands brushed against the cool door handles. He opened the passenger side door and lowered himself into the seat. He paused, tentatively. They were made of the most luxurious, creamy leather he had ever seen. He ran a rough palm across them, smiling slightly. Looking up, he saw Jen watching him carefully, the same daring smile plastered across her face. "Good. It was good—great. Is this your car? It's beautiful…"

She continued to smile as she pulled her eyes away from him, starting the car up and revving the engine. It purred quietly, contently. She turned up the volume to the CD player and pulled her seatbelt down into place. "Safety first." Jen chided Kit with a wink, as he buckled his own. Putting the car into drive, she pulled out of the space and out of the parking lot. Finally on the road, she turned back to Kit, her smile showing in her eyes. She turned away, keeping her eyes on the road. "Yeah, it's mine. It's a new Bentley Convertible, obviously… unless someone jacked my roof while we were in school. My dad… he got it for me before we… moved." Kit nodded back at her as she hummed a line of the music. "Where do you live again? Can you help me? I'm not too familiar with the roads yet." Jen asked as Kit sat slightly uncomfortably in the luscious seats.

"Uh… Take your second left and down two blocks on the right hand side." Kit began to worry about what Jen would think of his house and family. "It's a white house with a black door." He added as an afterthought. Surely his family's wealth… or lack there of compared to Jen's… didn't matter; but she dressed so expensively, and clearly had the best car—for anyone their age—in the entire town. He quietly began wondering what she was doing with him, why she would put up with Kit; the social outcast of their grade. He was too young, too short and too ethnic. With his unruly black hair and brown skin, he wasn't anything like the tall, muscular guys that she should be friends with. It was evident that they all wanted to be with her, and yet she paid them no attention.

Jen broke Kit out of his reverie as she asked "Is it this one?" while discreetly pointing to the house on their right. Kit nodded slowly, slightly embarrassed, even though he knew he shouldn't. Jen bobbed her head, her hair flipping about in the calm breeze as she pulled forward and parked by the curb. Willing himself to pull his eyes up towards her face, she smiled at him again '_What's with her smiling so much!'_ She placed a hand on his knee, clearly noting his embarrassment. "It's lovely. I love it." She said in reference to his house. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, and opened them again as she exhaled. "Look, Kit, I know it looks weird…" Jen paused for a second, collecting her thoughts properly. She looked tired. "I know it looks like we shouldn't be friends because we're so different..." Kit raised his eyebrows and looked like he was about to say something, until Jen gently pressed a finger to his lips to keep him from talking "But I like it like this. I just wanted you to know that. I like you for who you are, okay? So don't… change. Anything. Don't change anything." Kit could feel his heart beating wildly beneath his skin, the possibilities began racing about in his head. He smiled against her finger, wishing desperately that it could be her lips, and she dropped her hand to his shoulder, he eyes sparkling joyfully the entire time.

Cocking her head towards his house, she said "Can we go in?"

Kit grinned back, unbuckling his seatbelt as he grabbed his backpack. "Yeah. Yeah, of course." He waited a second on the sidewalk for Jen to catch up to him, her math books under her arm. His heart skipped a beat as she lazily wrung her arm around his waist. She bumped hips with him and began laughing when he looked her in the face and laughed himself.

Kit was falling in love.

* * *

Nita sat in one of the chairs on the back patio. The September sun was warm against her skin, and she faintly felt like smiling as the breeze played through her brown, loose ringlets of hair. Dressed only in a ribbed white tank top with a dark green sarong wrapped around her waist, she was happy to catch some of the last rays of sun before the winter came. She was too busy to smile though. Her laptop was perched carefully on her knees as she scrolled through different data pools. Sighing, Nita took a sip from the glass of lemonade, and she rested for a minuet. She had been searching all afternoon. She wasn't sure what exactly she was expecting to find, but it certainly hadn't been the dead ends that kept turning up. After giving up on scouring the internet over a half hour ago, she had hacked into the corrupted database at the school to check there wasn't any hidden information. She was no computer wiz like Dair, but she was pretty sure there wasn't anything to be found. 

Closing her eyes, Nita slowed her breathing and tried taking in everything around her. She felt the sun dancing across the bridge of her nose, and the sharp scent of the grass around her. Somewhere, off in the distance, a grackle bickered unhappily with no one in particular. A car drove by. _'Maybe I should just give up.'_ Nita wasn't one for giving up, but maybe she was wrong. Maybe Jéan wasn't that bad; or Jen… whatever her name was. Maybe Nita had jumped to conclusions about her. She felt her chest contract and her breath hitched. Rubbing her temples in frustration, she muttered to herself, quietly, "Maybe I love Kit too much to…", but the words caught in her throat. It sounded wrong, the way it rolled off her tongue and almost stung her lips. It was wrong to say it. If she really loved Kit, then she wouldn't have gotten in a fight with him. If Nita really _loved_ Kit, then she would have trusted his judgment. She would have supported his new friend instead of being selfish. Nita was being terribly selfish. A heavy, sinking feeling began to fill her stomach and felt suspiciously like concrete; or guilt.

Nita groaned at herself and opened her eyes. The screen had already gone blank, going into battery-saving mode. She fiddled around with the touch-sensitive pad to wake the computer up and properly turn it off. She was going to leave Kit a message in his manual that she was sorry. No, even better… She was going to go over there right away and say she was sorry. Her stomach plummeted even farther. Nita had been wrong, and now Kit probably hated her.

Before she could do anything though, she had to clean up her mess outside and change her outfit. Nita furrowed her brows at the blank computer screen. It was still running alright, the power button winked cheekily up at her, but it wouldn't wake up. Punching a few keys, she tried to get it running, but it wouldn't. The hard drive sputtered a few times, emitting awful sounds. Frustrated, Nita sat up fully and tried to turn it off manually using the switch on the back to remove the battery. She turned the computer back over to look at the screen, but a white curser prompt was carefully blinking in the middle of it. Perturbed, Nita typed in /run , but nothing happened.

The curser scrolled across the screen, leaving the words "The end IS near, Nita" squarely in the middle of it. Frightened, Nita practically threw the laptop onto the table opposite her as she flew out of her chair. Carefully, Nita kept her distance from the computer as she bent over slightly to look at it. The curser was still blinking at her, the words erased themselves automatically, and then the computer fizzled out and shut down. Nita breathed again, and reached a hand out hesitantly as she closed the top, picking it up gingerly.

Her heart was beating a mile a minuet. What had just happened? What did this mean? Was Dair messing around with her? Nita stepped through the backdoor into the cool shade of the house. She shivered, goose bumps running up and down her back. Who was she going to tell? Surely not Tom or Carl, they were far too busy to deal with her twice in one day, and Nita was unable to talk to Kit. Running her hand carefully across the lid of the laptop, she tucked it under her arm and slid up the stairs and down the hall to Dairine's room. She could hear the quiet sound of music coming from underneath the door. Nita paused; her hand hovered above the doorknob. Did she really want to do this? Resigned that this was her only option, she opened the door slowly and peeked in, seeing her sister hunched over a textbook, dictating notes to Spot. Nita smiled, slightly, and stepped all the way inside. Before she could open her mouth though, Dair spoke, not even looking up from her book. "You ought to try to be quieter if you want to be the next James Bond, you know."

Nita blushed, retorting to her sister "I wasn't trying to sneak around."

Dair looked up from her book and peered at Nita carefully, her eyes questioning her summery garb, until her eyes landed on her laptop tucked under her arm. She smiled. "Ah… issues, my technically disinclined sister?" Dairine got out of her chair; Spot garbling as he sat down on the desk, upset to have Dair leave him so suddenly.

Nita glanced at Dairine wearily and asked, almost shyly, "Did you do something to my computer?" She placed the electronic down on the desk as Dair moved closer to get a better look.

"Do something? Like what? I haven't been in your room all day, genius. If you happened to forgot, I go to school just like you." She nudged Nita out of the way and tucked her hair behind her ears. She flipped open the top of the computer and pressed the power button. She glanced at her sister and back at the computer. "What on earth are you talking about? It's working just fine."

Nita groaned and paced across the room, staring at the floorboards. "It did something weird, alright?"

"Weird like what?" Dairine pressed, not even looking at her sister as she typed in some code and began to analyze the system core.

Nita wrung her hands around as she continued to pace. Dair was going to think she was crazy. "Like it said something to me."

Dairine stopped and looked up as soon as Nita said this, looking genuinely surprised. "It spoke? Like it spoke to you?"

Nita stopped and shook her head. "No, I'm not that crazy. It just… This is what happened. I was trying to turn it off. The whole screen was blank and I thought it was just in sleep-mode or something… so I tried to wake it up, but it wouldn't. Then, some prompt came up and…" Nita's words faltered. Should she tell Dairine what it had said? She swallowed a lump in her throat. "It said "The end IS near, Nita." That's it…"

Dairine gave Nita a careful look and exited the core, shutting off the computer with a flick of her fingers across the keyboard. She snapped the lid shut and shoved it back at Nita, her lips pursed together. Nita hadn't seen her as serious as this in a long time. Dair pushed the laptop into Nita's arms and let a breath slowly escape from her nose. "There's nothing wrong with your computer." She said cautiously. "There's nothing wrong with it at all."

"Is there something wrong with me?" Nita asked, bemused.

Dairine paused, not even looking at Nita, before she lowered herself into her chair again, Spot curiously looking on from the desk. "No."

"Oh, alright. Thanks…" Nita turned to leave her room and change so she could see Kit. "Squirt," she added for good measure.

Before she left the room though, Dairine spoke once more "Listen to them."

Confused, Nita turned to her sister and asked, "Who?"

"Whoever told you what was on your computer. Listen to them." Nita nodded slightly at her sister, further worried by her reaction to the matter. Dair was always easy going and loved to tease Nita, but ever fiber of her being was serious this second. The air was tense in the room. Nita couldn't handle it anymore and slipped out into the hallway, treading carefully to her own room.

* * *

Kit was uneasy about being home alone with Jen. He had seen the note from his mother pinned up on the refrigerator when he came into the kitchen: _'Out shopping, be home before dinner. If Nita comes over, have her stay for dinner.'_ He felt his stomach drop at the last sentence. Nita hadn't been over the entire weekend. Kit was almost positive his mother was upset she hadn't seen her, but he snatched the note out from under the magnet and threw it in the garbage can before Jen could read it. She stood rooted in the middle of his kitchen, and he noticed how terribly out of place she looked. Nita blended in so well in his house. She practically lived there, but Jen was an entirely new entity. Her arms gripped her elbows as she looked around, seeming to examine and observe every bit of his house, from the color of the fruit on the counter to the last thread in the curtains. 

"My mom went out shopping. She'll be home soon, I think. Do you want to work down here on the kitchen counter?" Jen's eyes darted to the small area with two barstools, suddenly becoming someone else as she bit her lip. He had never seen Jen nervous before. "We could work in my room if that's better." He added hastily, "Whatever you want to do."

Jen nodded, twisting her foot around as she tried to make up her mind. "Would that be okay? Up in your room, I mean. I just don't… want to mess up your kitchen. It's so tidy…" her voice trailed off hopefully, as she looked at Kit pleadingly. She was growing as uncomfortable as Kit had been in her car.

"Sure." He tilted his head in the direction of the stairs by the main foyer, and she followed close behind. Kit cursed to himself as he made it to the top of the stairs, only to turn around and say to Jen "Sorry about my sister's mess in the hallway… she's a pig." Jen laughed and continued to follow Kit to the end of the hallway.

He opened the door to his room, and sighed in relief when he saw his mom had made his bed for him this morning. The blinds had been drawn up; the two full-length windows cracked enough to allow a breeze into the room. The suns warm rays spilled through and laced across his floorboards and halfway up his bed. The creamy white walls danced with the light, reflecting the navy blue bedspread that was pulled taunt across his mattress. It looked like his mom had also cleaned up his desk, a dark-stained piece of furniture that was grand compared to anything else in his room. The books had been placed carefully back on the shelf, and all the dirty cloths that had been on his floor brought down to the laundry room.

Kit smiled fully, remembering to thank his mom later, and strode across his room to his bed, setting his backpack down on his way against the wall. He sat down; watching Jen carefully as she fully took his room in, turning around once with a grin on her face. "Great room." She said; her eyes locked fully on his as she spoke truthfully. Moving farther into his room, she slipped her books onto his desk and moved to the bed and sat next to him.

Kit nodded, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. "Want to start the math homework?" He leaned back on his arms, splaying them out carefully.

Jen had to turn to speak to him, but instead she looked at him cautiously, words forming behind her eyes as she thought. "We don't have to do it now." She thought for a minuet, her head crooked as she continued to look at Kit. "I mean, we have all night, right? My dad doesn't really have a time I have to be home…" Kit nodded, watching Jen flop down onto her back next to Kit… almost like Nita had that last Friday; only Jen did it with more grace. She rolled over onto her side, propping her head up on her arm to look at Kit, who was watching her with rapt interest.

They were close. So very close. So close, that he could feel Jen's sweet, minty breath lightly tickling his cheek. So close, in fact, that he could see his own reflection in her bright eyes. Jen tilted her head up to his, her nose nearly touching Kits. He felt her warmth radiating off her flushed skin. She smelled like spice and grapefruit, and he breathed in deeply, taking in everything he could. Kit should have been nervous, but he wasn't. He nearly closed his eyes and smiled, noting the light dusting of freckles upon the bridge of her nose as he tilted his head inward towards her. He saw her eyes close, breath escaping from the lips he wanted to taste so badly. Placing a hand on the side of her, Kit carefully leaned down, nearly rolling himself on top of her, still held up by his arms. He felt Jen's nose rub against his own; the electricity as their skin met. He wanted so badly to kiss her, but she was prolonging it. It was driving Kit crazy.

The doorbell rang.

Kit flew off of Jen in a wild, startled frenzy, and onto the floor. She lay still on the bed, lying there quite contently, as she smiled coyly at Kit. The doorbell rang twice in quick succession. Whoever was at the door was anxious. Kit grumbled, not even looking at Jen. He felt the heat rising to his cheeks as he realized what he had almost done. Running down the stairs at an alarming pace, he could hear Jen walking quietly through the hall.

Throwing open the door, Kit barely saw who was at the door before he felt arms encircling around him, the smell of fresh linens and gardenia filled his nostrils and brown curls blocked his vision. The person was sobbing, the tears wrenching her body so heavily that he wasn't even sure what was going on. He was rooted to the floor, unsure of what to do. He could barely think or open his eyes before he felt a pair of soft lips pressing feverishly against his own. His arms pinned against his side, Kit took one step back, and whoever it was that had just kissed him let go.

Jen coughed loudly from the stairs behind him, and Kit looked to her, before looking back at the person. Fear and some unknown emotion clenched through his heart. He saw the soft eyes looking back at him, the tear-stained face and her flushed cheeks. Kit saw her lips, red and puffy. Her eyes darted to the stairs and took one look at Jen. Her eyes grew wide as she whispered, "S-S-Sorry!" She backed out the front door and turned down the stairs, disappearing around the front lawn and sidewalk and she ran at an amazing speed.

Before Kit could stop himself, he shouted at the retreating form, "Wait! Nita!"


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: Much thanks to my reviewers again! You finally get some information in this chapter that you've probably been wondering about the entire time. It was pretty hard to write, as I was trying to get it written this weekend only to find I get writers block fairly easily. I may also move the rating up to M in the future violence/fluff planned for this story. I would really appreciate a few more reviews though, because I'm pretty unsure of this story as of right now. Anyway, let's keep things short today and let you get on with the reading!_

_Disclaimer: I don't plan on making money off of this story._

Nita was fairly sure that she was dreaming again.

When she had returned home earlier that day out of breath, her every bone aching, she was unsure of what to do. The thought that came to her head immediately, as she closed her bedroom door behind her, was that something was wrong. Nita had felt it as she fled Kit's house, her recognizable conscious coming back to her. It fought down an unfamiliar feeling residing within her chest, leaving fuzzy edges on her memory. It was far too much to be a coincidence. Something was happening to her, something terrible. Nita was almost positive of it, the impending, unknown future; and it scared her.

Nita walked across her room, her eyes darting about. They landed only briefly to her laptop on her desk before she turned to her bed. She loved her room and the bright cheeriness the Moroccan colors evoked. From her warm red and orange bedspread and the numerous amounts of pillows to the white net that hung loose above her bed. Right now though, she just wanted something calming, a soft blue room like Kits.

Sliding out of her jeans and into a pair of sweatpants, Nita curled into a ball on her bed, wanting to take a nap before she had to make dinner for her dad and Dairine.

She had sworn she only closed her eyes for a second, but when Nita opened them again, she found herself in the same, abandoned corridor that haunted her entire weekend. She felt her palms splayed open upon the cool brick wall as she pressed her back into it, trying desperately to be invisible. Nita wasn't ready to be back again, not so soon. She hated the feeling of being vulnerable, the feeling of impending danger. The same thing never happened twice though, so far. She always found herself in slightly different places, opening her eyes slowly as soon as she felt the electric jolt of her mind shifting between awake and her dream.

_Dreaming is rather a loose term_, she thought. _These things were so real, so deadly..._ There was always an impending danger around the corner, the way her heart sped up so fast and she was sure that the man in the tan jacket and bowler hat would find her. The fear she wouldn't ever wake up again hid deep within her chest. She was unsure if she even wanted to move from where she hid.

Her form concealed in the shadows gave Nita a valuable block of time to attempt to wake before He came. As she leaned farther against the wall, the rotting smell of the corpses long absent since the first night, Nita felt her taunt muscles loosen. She was still terribly frightened; the musty, moldy odor that hung so dense in the air choked her senses. There was some link that had formed between Nita and the sword like it was a kernel. She could feel it pulsing somewhere deep in the walls of the school, the silky waves of speech washing over her every time it breathed out. She needed to find it, but it was always moving, constantly in flux.

Nita's head snapped towards the ceiling as she heard the intercom system turn on with a loud screeching noise, static flowing through the unused speakers. Clicking from the system echoed around the hall. Desperately, Nita tried to hide further into the shadows, not able to find any other escape. She closed her eyes, willing her heart to slow down as she took deep breaths. _If only I could get out of here._

She felt a gentle tug on the tips of her fingers, pulling her towards the darkest shadows of the wall. Snapping her eyes open, Nita saw her fingers fading into the quite solid-looking shadows. Terrified, she stifled a scream as she darted out into the light. Nita was safe from nothing here.

Her heart beat madly as she tried to think of a plan. She needed to get to that sword. Her magic had been useless the other three nights, only attracting Him sooner than she would have otherwise. But the thing that frightened her more was that the wall had nearly tried to _eat_ her. After looking down the hall, half expecting to see Him lumbering towards her, Nita stepped carefully back into the shadows. She could see now, keeping her distance, that the wall _was_ solid. Nita reached her hand out, rubbing her palm across the surface. She jumped back slightly, the feeling in her hand becoming liquid as it plunged through the wall.

More curious than scared, Nita forced her hand forward, burying her arm up to the elbow into the shadows. Before she could even stop herself, she stepped all the way in, finding herself surrounded by a brilliant white light. She tried to take another step forward, blindly looking about, for her sight was almost useless, but found her feet stuck to the floor. Pulling her legs up with force, they both became dislodged, but she found she no longer had any control over what was happening. Her form floated above the ground as if she were in water.

And then, as soon as her eyes could barely make out the blurry outline of the sword hovering above her, Nita found herself being sucked towards the ground, being absorbed between the tiles of the floor. It was an uncanny feeling, her every atom being pulled apart violently as she flowed through the solid object. Nita's body screamed from the pain; but it stopped as soon as it began, and she found herself on a different side of the school, in another corner steeped in shadows.

The intercom system was still crackling and buzzing, leaving Nita's skin prickling against the electricity in the air. She was frozen in place, unable to fathom what had just happened. "Had I just… traveled through walls; through shadows?" She barely even whispered the words to herself in Speech when she felt the air around her tighten; the walls reverberated in answer back at her.

Nita backed up farther into the nook she was in, away from the walls, and found her back pressed against a door knob. Turning around, she coaxed the door open quietly and slipped inside before she shut it again. It was a good thing too, for as soon as she shut the door a white blur ran past the door, its feet pounding against the ground as it ran down the hall. Moving her head just enough so she could see out the small window on the door, Nita saw Him quietly sliding down the hall, his breathing labored as his tan coat hitched up and down with the effort.

For the first time, Nita actually saw what He looked like. Aside from the trademark black bowlers' hat pulled down over His forehead and His tan trench coat buttoned all the way up, she noticed other things about Him. Nita noticed that His feet never actually touched the floor, walking just three or so inches on air above the linoleum tiles. Pressing her face closer to the glass, Nita wanted to see more. His hands were covered in black gloves, hanging uselessly by His side as He walked.

Scooting even closer to the door, Nita accidentally hit it with her foot, causing it to rattle against the latch. He turned His face towards the door, leaving Nita to recoil in horror. Where there should have been a face, a shadow of a nose and a mouth, there was only black. It wasn't solid black though, for His face moved about as if it were made of whips of smoke, tumbling and turning in the shape of a skull. Hollow red eyes bore into the door where Nita hid, the iris' milky white and unforgiving at her folly.

Panicked, Nita backed farther into the classroom as He moved towards the door, abandoning his previous chase. Closing her eyes, she ran her hands across the walls, hoping her previous trick would work again. Anything would be better than being captured by Him. Her eyes locked onto the door, as His figure stooped down to the door window, looking in as His hand hovered over the knob.

Nita closed her eyes and hoped for the best, hearing the door open. A terrible noise filled her ears though, and her eyes snapped open just as she saw a blast of light hit His form from behind. Steadying herself, Nita felt her hand plunge into the wall and the sword materialized in her hand. She gasped as she pulled it back out, the entire room filling with a brilliant white light. He shrieked even louder and fled out of the room, slipping down the hall and out of sight.

As Nita slumped to the floor, her breathing heavy, she let the sword fall from her hands to the floor. Tilting her head back against the wall, Nita looked over to the door, wanting nothing more than to wake up. Dream-Kit stood there in the doorframe, his hand gripped against the cold metal.

He seemed calm, but the way his eyes darted about the room Nita could tell something was wrong. Her Dream-Kit shouldn't be his own entity. He should be obeying the parameters of Nita's mind, not acting out on his own. Kit stood there just a second longer, before letting his hand fall to his side, the other running through his hair in frustration, pulling the dark strands out of his eyes. He seemed like he wanted to say something, and Nita found herself trying to will him to say it, whatever it was, but he wouldn't obey. Instead, he turned around to leave the room.

Before Nita could stop herself though, she opened her mouth, her hand reaching back out to grab the sword. "Kit, wait."

He turned around; looking at her strangely, but he didn't say anything.

Nita's words failed her, she wanted so badly to ask what was going on; but before she could stop herself she blurted out stupidly, "I'm sorry!"

Kit furrowed his eyebrows as he turned around to face Nita. He was clearly confused as much as she was. It struck Nita how animated, how life-like he was. He stood there, his shoulders curled forward, his white button up shirt hung loosely; the top two buttons undone carelessly, perhaps pulled apart in the struggle. Shaking his head, Kit looked towards the ceiling in defeat. He looked tired, even more tired than Nita felt. Letting a breath out, Dream-Kit looked back at Nita and chewed his lip before he spoke, musing out loud, "You're more real this time…"

Nita tried to stand up, using the sword as leverage to aid her shaking knees. "More real, Kit?" She asked. Nita held her attention on him, her eyes never leaving his. She never had conversations like this with Dream-Kit before.

"Yeah," he took a step forward, giving his hand to Nita to help her fully stand. "It's like… Like you're so real, like you are in life… I must be going crazy, talking to you like this. This isn't even real." Tentatively, Kit reached a trembling hand out, his fingers tracing down Nita's cheekbone. His warm eyes studied hers. Nita found herself pulling away suddenly, the feeling that his fingers left on her face was far too real not to notice.

Kit smiled lopsidedly. "It's like nothing had happened today… It's like," He paused, burying his hands in his pockets as he continued to study her. "It's sort of like this isn't a dream and we're both really here."

* * *

After Jen had left his house that afternoon, Kit felt dead. She didn't even stay for dinner; claiming that, although she really wished she could stay, it was rude to intrude and she had to get home. She thanked him profusely as she gathered her books; merely waving her hand at him in a gesture of goodbye with a nervous smile on her face. Kit could see her get in her car from where he stood in his room, leaning on the window frame, just out of view, and drove away as she looked back at the house. 

Kit pulled at the collared shirt he wore. It was so uncomfortable; he unsnapped the top buttons as he sat down. So many thoughts were going on in his head that he didn't know what had just happened. Had Nita really kissed him? What was going on? Kit felt a lump forming in his throat as he carefully sat down on his bed, burying his head in his hands. This was all too much for him.

Reaching across to his nightstand, Kit fumbled for his manual and opened it up. Thumbing to the directory in the back, he located Carl's name and wearily stated to the book, "Send message." The manual quipped back at him "Message?" Kit thought for a second, before dictating back at the manual, "Carl, I need to meet with you tomorrow after school… If it's a bad time get back to me before then… uh, there's some weird stuff going on that can wait but… it's big. Alright, well, thanks." He gathered himself, staring down at the tiny book in his hands, before he swallowed and said "Send."

Now that it was done, Kit felt a little lighter. Tom and Carl could help him sort out the mess that was going on, right? Between Nita acting strange and the world going on a fritz, Kit came to the conclusion that it was not normal. Nita _had_ been acting strange since her mom died, and she was far too moody for far too long for it to be the daily perils of the teen years.

He tried to think of how he got there; what exactly had gone on in the past couple weeks. Had he been blanking out more? Were there nights that came and went and he didn't even remember what happened? What about the days too? There were blank spots in every day, every week, and Kit found them frustrating. He couldn't do anything about it. "What's going on…" he whispered to himself.

The pit of his stomach dropped. He instantly felt sorry for Nita. She was always so stubborn. She had finally been the first one to come to Kit and say she was sorry and he had reacted the wrong way. Nita had happened to pick the wrong way to say sorry, but it was the effort that must count for something.

Slowly lowering himself down onto his back, Kit rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes. The soft warmth of his bed was too welcoming to deny. Kit felt so tired; he couldn't help himself as he let his breathing slow down, his taunt muscles loosening with the prospect of sleep. He didn't care if he had another nightmare; he just needed to make everything go away for a small amount of time.

Finally feeling himself drift off, time became unimportant as everything in his conscious blanked out. It fizzled back on shortly after, becoming brighter as the world came into focus. It wasn't long-lived as a universe though. Kit had created it a long time ago with Ponch when Nita had gone to Ireland for vacation. He had missed Nita terribly, feeling her absence when he couldn't visit her. But that summer, towards the end, he began noticing he could jump right before he fell into deep sleep to any universe he had been. This proved useful, for his body rested but his mind had more control over what happened, strengthening his inner conscious as he prepared and practiced different techniques and devised different spells.

To be honest though, Kit wasn't sure what happened to this universe. For the past year everything was okay, but now something had gone haywire. Originally, he had created their entire town, down to every fine detail he knew. He had even made an alterative Nita, so he wouldn't grow too lonely when Ponch wasn't around. Now it seemed as though the Kernel had a mind of its own. Kit could wager that he made it too smart, or even too susceptible to intrusions, because towards the middle of August he found things out of order, as if someone else had moved them around when he was absent.

He didn't want to tell Tom or Carl. They had told him to keep the universe creation to a minimum, feeling that he should stop it all together until a more experienced wizard could research what was going on. Kit had wanted to stop, and he did, after he created this universe. Now he had to tell Tom and Carl. Something else had taken over, something bad, and it was wrecking havoc on everything.

Kit walked slowly down the main hallway. It was a mess. The universe was broken down. The glass in the windows was shattered and cracked, the walls and floors dirty. Some of the light fixtures in the ceiling hung dangerously from the rafters, broken and sparking. The speaker system seemed to be on the fritz this time. He wished he could find the Kernel again just to fix it. Kit found he no longer could do it with just his mind, willing things how he wanted them. He had been trying to find the Kernel for over a month now, but it had changed its shape and place so many times it was nearly impossible to track.

There was another problem that had come to his attention too.

Someone else, someone Kit hadn't created, had decided to inhabit his universe. It was strange to Kit, he had never seen anything make its home in a universe it had never known before, but it happened just the same. And to make matters worse, part of him felt guilty knowing he couldn't find the Nita he made. Of course it wasn't the real Nita, but the thought of something happening to her, even something that looked like her, bothered him.

He had found his Make-Nita though. Just this past weekend in fact, he got to her though before the creature could ruin her like he had everything else. Kit had found her, in a dark closet towards the back of the school in his search for the Kernel, only to lose her again.

Kit looked down the hall to see the creature lumbering towards him. To anyone else, it might have been terrifying to see, but Kit was all too accustomed to it. This was his universe he created, and when it came down to it, he had ultimate control.

But control wasn't something Kit needed. Kit needed more space between him and the creature to get a spell worked out. By now he had an idea of what scared it away but it would take longer to recite and lay out than he had at the moment. Making a mad dash towards the adjacent hallway, he started shifting around his memories, pulling the spell out and into his hands. Before he could drop the spell though, he looked over his shoulder and saw that the creature was no longer chasing after him.

Instead, it seemed rather distracted by one of the classroom doors, as it stooped forward to fit into the alcove, looking down through the glass window to the inside. Smiling slightly in victory, Kit threw the spell down, nearly shouting the words in haste, and hit the creature in the back with it as soon as he opened the door. The creature screamed, but the entire hallway became lit with a light even brighter than what Kit had produced. Screaming even louder, the creature turned and slunk off towards the shadowy stairwell, probably to nurse the wounds.

Kit couldn't help himself as he walked briskly towards the now open door. He wanted to know badly what had vanquished the creature and caused it so much pain. As he neared the doorframe though, the light died down a bit to just a faint glow. Looking inside, he nearly laughed in relief. Make-Nita was sitting against the wall, just below the broken chalkboard, holding a sword. Kit could guess that it was the Kernel, but he was happier to find Nita again.

She looked at him curiously though, as if she was more than just pretend, the spark that made Nita so real shimmered behind her eyes so clearly. More than exhausted, he was frustrated too. Kit needed to get to the bottom of this problem. It would be safe with Make-Nita; she was nearly just like the real one, with minor setbacks. He turned to walk away, willing himself to chase after the creature, only to hear Make-Nita speak, "Kit, wait."

It wasn't that uncommon for Make-people to speak, but this was different. They spoke in more of a robotic tone, unsure of how to truly be the copy of who they were. But this… this was different. He paused briefly, unsure of what was going on. He heard her blurt out, "I'm sorry!"

Kit swiveled around, his eyes landing back on Nita. Furrowing his eyebrows, he was confused. Surely Make-Nita wouldn't ever have become so real in such a small amount of time. Kit would have had to work with her for years before she would even start acting just like the real Nita. But he shook his head, looking towards the ceiling in a plea to the Powers for an answer. Turning his gaze back to Make-Nita, Kit wondered what came over him as he spoke, the words spilling from his mouth as he said, more to himself than her, "You're more real this time…"

He watched Make-Nita try to stand up, using the sword as an aid. He could clearly see her shaking. The emotions were too _real_. She looked up at him, her eyes laced with confusion, "More real, Kit?"

Kit was quiet for a second before he spoke. The idea of having more conversations with this Nita than the real one bothered him. "Yeah," he took a step forward, giving his hand to Nita to help her to her feet. "It's like… Like you're so real, like you are in life… I must be going crazy, talking to you like this. This isn't even real." Kit could hardly stop himself as he reached a trembling hand out, his fingers tracing down Make-Nita's cheekbone. Earlier this afternoon flooded back into his mind. It felt so wrong to be doing this, yet he couldn't pry his eyes away from her. She pulled away suddenly though, clearly frightened.

Kit smiled at her. He mentally made note of how well she had turned out in this universe. Plunging forward into the conversation, mostly for his own behalf, he said "It's like nothing had happened today… It's like…" Kit paused for a second to stuff his hands in his pockets. He wanted so badly to touch her face again, but he needed to remain under control. "It's sort of like this isn't a dream and we're both really here."

Make-Nita studied him for awhile longer, her head tilted as she studied Kit. "Sort of like a dream? I thought this was a dream."

Kit shook his head and bit his lip before he spoke. "No, I don't think so. Ponch and I created this last year. Remember?"

"Get off it." Nita said quietly as she backed away from Kit.

He smiled at Make-Nita. "It's true."

"No. You're lying. Because this is a dream... I just went to bed! I just came from your house and now everything's a mess and I'm stuck in this nightmare _again_!" Nita nearly flung herself towards the wall, the sword still in hand; for what reason, Kit had no idea.

"Easy now, Neets. No need to inflict harm on yourself, if that's even possible in this place…" Kit began to ponder this, if it was even possible to die in this universe, but came to the conclusion that it had to be, because the Lone Power must still have some sort of hold over it.

Kit looked up to see Nita running her hands against the wall, muttering something about going through to the shadows. The glitch must have gotten to her too, for she was acting strange. He let out a sigh and reached forward to grab her arm, pulling her away from the wall. "Calm down, alright?"

She looked at him for a second, before he saw her start to grow faint, her form becoming see-through. Kit panicked slightly, letting go of her arm, as he saw Make-Nita disappear and the sword drop to the ground, becoming absorbed into the dirty tiled floor. He groaned. Something was going on. He barely had time though to make it out the door to find the creaure as he felt his body flinch. It was a feeling that he had missed in a long time, but he knew it. It was Nita trying to send him a message through their mental link.

Willing himself back into his bed, he sat upright just as he felt the speech come through his mind, **_'Kit we need to talk, something's going on…'_**


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I don't own the copyrights to the Young Wizards books. Characters that you recognize from the stories are not mine._

Kit relaxed his body as he lay back down into his bed. He was fully awake now, after nearly throwing himself out of bed in fright. As he stared at the ceiling, he realized that he had several problems at hand. One was that Nita had somehow found a way into his universe, a feat he knew was basically impossible; he had even calculated it. The second was the fact that she probably has a very good idea what was going on, which creates a very large problem for Kit if she had run into Make-Nita. The third problem was now that Nita knew; he would be in big trouble for trying to sweep the problem of his universe under the proverbial rug. Not only would she be angry, she'd march him over to Tom and Carl's and have him explain everything. The High Council of Living would not be happy with him. "Not be happy" was actually a fairly loose term for the damage control they'd have to do.

He couldn't quite bring himself to reply to Nita though. Kit knew that she could tell he was awake. He felt her trying to push through his mental walls, the faint buzz of her speech eating away at his mind. He was feeling very guilty ignoring her, but he couldn't think of what to say to her that would sound right.

Giving in, Kit sighed and started bring down his mental walls. Slowly shutting off the barriers he constructed against Nita, he let her in for the first time in over a month. Kit felt her presence almost immediately: the strong surge of power and a fait tickle at the shoal of his neck. Everything felt more _alive_. The room seemed to be flexing and breathing along with him. Kit could pick out a hint of Nita's light, airy laugh on the breeze that came through his open windows. The smell of gardenia wafted through his nostrils. Kit smiled, if only for a second, before feeling a sharp prod from Nita.

'**_Kit!_**_' _She was frightened. Kit had only seen Nita scared once in her life before, and it was only for a second. _'**Kit, please, I know you're there. What's going on? Kit, I'm sorry, I swear. Just talk to me again. I need you, as a friend... I need you, Kit**__'_

_  
_ But he didn't respond. Instead, Kit searched around in his memory for the transit ring of brightly glowing speech. As soon as he found it, he pulled it out and threw it down on his worn wooden floor carefully. He activating it with a whisper that was so quiet it almost just a breath.

Kit was so nervous. He hadn't seen Nita—actually seen her—in what felt like so long ago.

The spell was quiet enough that Nita didn't hear him pop into her room. Kit stood for a second and looked around. His eyes strained against the dark: the shades on her windows blocking out the orange light from the streetlamps outside her house. He hadn't been in her room in what felt like forever, but for some reason it seemed like he never left.

Kit was truly tired. His body ached for a single night of universe-less sleep. A single night he didn't have to remember his mistakes. His shoulders slumped forward as his eyes found Nita in her bed, rolled over onto her side clutching her pillow tightly. Quiet sobs wracked her body.

"Neets…" Kit whispered quietly, walking over to her on the balls of his feet. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her.

She paused for a moment; he could see her body visibly tighten, before she turned her head over to where he stood at the side of her bed. Upon realizing who was in her room, Nita launched herself up in bed, scooting towards the wall while trying to pull her blankets up around her.

"Neets," Kit tried again, moving even slower and talking even quieter. He reached out to pull the blankets down off her, but decided against it and rested his hand upon the bed. He smoothed down the sheets while his mind fumbled for the right words to say. He couldn't think of anything. Kit climbed onto her bed, keeping far away from Nita as possible.

"This isn't real." She muttered to herself.

Kit looked up at Nita, fighting down the urge to smile at her.

"It's all real." He said. Kit's voice was gentle, and he could see Nita relax a little, relinquishing her hold on the blanket as she moved to sit up and look at Kit.

"You can ask me any questions that you want to." He said, as he stretched out onto her bed, making himself comfortable. "I don't know where to start or what to tell you."

"What is it?"

"What's what?" He asked "There's a lot of things."

Nita sat quiet as she thought about the question. There were a lot of things that she wanted to know. Who… _what_ was Jen. What the universe was. What the man in the coat was. What the sword was. What it all was.

"They're a nebule of nanotrons. KR50-2.6; an analog breed. Sort of like the white blood cells of the universe. They're supposed to get rid of viruses… you know, Lone Power stuff. I developed them last august, but something mucked around with them and they grew kernel properties. You aren't supposed to normally see them."

"What?"

"Neets, you asked what the sword was. They're KR50-2.6. Version 2.6. You can look it up in the manual under Council of Higher Living. I submitted a report to them a year or so ago about the KR50-1.0 with Ponch." Kit turned his head and looked over at Nita, who sat cross-legged with the blankets over her legs. "You knew that. I told you."

She was staring at him. Her curly brown hair fell in every direction and bobbed as she shook her head. "No… not that. I didn't say that out loud."

"You thought it."

"Not at you."

"You didn't send it towards me?" Kit felt the room grow silent. Nita didn't respond. Instead, she threw the blankets off her legs and began pacing the length of her room; her arms folded rigidly over her stomach. Confusion laced across her delicate features as she spoke quietly to herself. She looked like she was freezing despite the fact that she had sweatpants on.

"No." Nita stopped and looked at Kit, questions growing in her eyes. She turned her back to Kit and began examining her bookcase, no doubt to occupy her mind from dangerous thoughts Kit could now hear. "And I'm not sure if I like the idea of you reading all of my thoughts. All of them… even the private ones."

Kit watched her before getting to his feet. He couldn't figure out what made him want to pull Nita into a bone crushing hug, but he felt that she needed it. She had lost so much and he had only made it worse. Guilt flooded through his body. He had been so mean to her, she never deserved that. Burying his face in her hair he quietly wondered when he had gotten taller than her. Kit held onto her tightly as he felt her body shiver in his arms. Nita was so alone in the world, even though she had her father and sister.

"Last year, you shot up." She whispered, pulling away and resting her head on Kit's shoulder while she hung on to his loose tee shirt.

Kit let go of Nita and studied her at arms length before breaking into a small, reassuring smile, despite her tear-stained cheeks and her puffy eyes. "I'm not sure if I mind that you can read my thoughts." He mused. "There isn't a lot to hide from you, Neets. You're my best friend." He shook his head and smiled wider at her.

"What about Jen." Nita looked away from Kit and took his arms off her shoulders. She took a step away from him, before turning back around, holding her arms tightly around her body.

"Jen who?"

"Jen-Jen. Your best friend Jen. Your girlfriend Jen. Your study buddy Jen. Jen." Why was Nita openly mocking him so soon after they had had come to terms?  
He furrowed his eyebrows at Nita. Did he detect jealousy through their connection? Surely, maybe… But Kit had been wrong before. Nita should understand. He just had to reassure her that Jen was never going to take her spot. "She's not my girlfriend."

"Not yet."

"What do you mean not yet Neets? You're crazy." Kit sighed and sat back down on her bed. He was so tired and they were getting nowhere. He loved that he was talking to her again, but this was idle chit-chat compared to what else there was to talk about.

"She loves you."

"Nita don't be silly. She can't love me. We hardly know each other. I don't know her like I know you. It's silly for you to even say that. She might _like_ me, but love is a totally different story." Kit ran his hand through his messy hair. Girls were so confusing. They were an entire different species he would never truly understand.

Nita's tongue felt heavy in her mouth. She couldn't even think straight. Nita was vaguely aware of how nauseous she felt. Kit was always so much smarter; so much wiser than her. He was so grown up now—nothing like the boy he was just a few years ago when they met. He was handsome and daring and intelligent. He thought so little of himself yet he gave so much to everyone—especially for her. He was strong willed and stood by what he believed in no matter what. Nita loved him, but she couldn't.

Kit watched Nita closely. He could hear everything she thought, but kept his mouth shut. How should he react? What should he say? This was the wrong way to find out this about Nita, though he knew she would never tell him. Part of him wanted to hear more, the whole story. It was the wrong moment to speak; he didn't want to upset Nita any more than she already was.

"Kit—"

Then she felt it. There was a searing pain that ripped across her entire body. It started at her right hand and worked its way up her arm and to her heart, leaving tingles on every nerve ending in her skin. Her vision blurred and blacked out. Becoming extremely dizzy, Nita reached out with her hand to steady herself as she collapsed down to her knees, her breathing shallow. She felt like she was going to throw up, almost like she was drowning in open air. Her entire body was on fire with the pain.

Kit saw Nita tense, her body ridged, her shoulders thrown back; and then sink to the floor on her knees. "Nita!" He sprang up from the bed to her side, feeling the pain through their connection. It burned him so bad; he could only imagine what she was feeling at this point. "Nita what's wrong? Nita, stay with me." He grabbed her shoulders and looked her over, panic spreading throughout his body. She turned her face up to him and looking off into the distance blindly, horror written all over her face. Nita blinked once, then twice; and let out a ragged breath. She clutched her chest with her right hand and groped to support herself with her left.

"I'm… I'm okay."

"Neets, you aren't okay. I can _feel_ you hurting." Kit swallowed tightly. "It hurts a lot."

"I just blacked out." Nita tried to push herself up upon her feet, but found her head was still dizzy and her vision still blurred. Her entire body rippled with pain. Kit lent Nita a hand and helped her to her feet as he guided her to the edge of the bed. She sat down and refused to look at Kit. She didn't want to explain herself. Nita cradled her right hand; it was nearly numb with pain.

"What's wrong with your hand?" Nita stopped and looked up at Kit, immediately dropping her hand into her lap.

"Nothing."

"Nita." Kit's heart skipped a beat. Some part of him had really missed Nita while they were fighting. Nita was his best friend—his second half. They did everything together. How could he forget that? Nita looked at him quietly, looking quite embarrassed with herself.

Taking up her hand, he smoothed his fingers over her soft skin of the back of her hand. Carefully, Kit turned her hand over and ran his fingers across her palm, never breaking their eye contact. Nita gasped though, and tried to pull away. Looking down, Kit saw a faint symbol seared into her palm, raised as a scar. He never noticed it before. It looked fairly old though, and like it had hurt a lot.

"How old is this?"

Nita looked away as she mumbled, "I got it last week."

"Last week? Neets, that's impossible. This scar is fully healed. Where could you have gotten it anyway? This would have had to be burnt into your skin, or something. Who did this to you?"

"I don't know."

"Nita, how can you not know? How long has this been happening? The pains? The blacking out? Are you sure you got this scar last week?"

Nita turned her head to look at Kit. She wasn't angry, just tired of his concern. Why did he care all of a sudden? Could they truly go back to just being friends after so long of hating each other? Could they go back after everything that had happened? "Kit, I don't know. There's something wrong and I don't know what it is. I can't tell you because I just… don't know. I'm sorry."

She truly looked sorry. Nita even looked hurt that she couldn't tell Kit.

"I'm sorry." Kit got up off of the floor and sat down on the bed next to Nita. "Neets, I don't know what to tell you either. It's so late and there's so much to tell." He looked away. "There's school tomorrow. I'm so tired. I haven't gotten a decent night's worth of sleep in a very long time."

"I know."

"And I know we have to figure out what we're going to do, but there's so much other stuff going on. There's probably another mission we're going to have to do soon—"

"This is the mission." Nita wasn't looking at him, but Kit watched her with rapt attention now. "This is the mission. There isn't a whole lot to brief you on, but this is it. Whatever is going on we have to solve. There's something amiss in the universe, and the Powers that Be don't like it and we have to fix it."

"This is our mission? Your scar?"

"The universe you created." Nita stopped for a second to lay down on her bed. She was so tired; she could feel sleep begging at her aching body. She heard the bed creek as Kit lay down next to her, though she kept her eyes closed. "And—and the man. The computer." She yawned widely, fumbling around for her covers. She pulled them up around herself, vaguely feeling Kit slide in next to her. "And just… everything." Nita yawned again. "We have to fix everything."

* * *

Nita awoke alone in her room; vaguely aware of what happened last night. She rolled over and fumbled for her alarm clock, turning it off without even realizing what she was doing. 

Slowly, she opened her eyes to find everything in order. Her blinds remained closed, but the sunlight threatened to seep through the cracks. The clock on her nightstand read 6:00. Nita had school in an hour and a half. Rolling over onto her stomach, she buried her head in the pillows. She didn't want to get up and face the day. There was too much going on, and Nita just wanted to go back to bed. She smelled Kit on her pillows, and it was nearly driving her crazy.

There wasn't anything else to do than get up and face the day.

* * *

Spotting Kit was impossible. It was almost like he was hiding from Nita. She knew he wasn't because he had kept their connection open the entire day, but she didn't want to talk that way. Nita wanted to see him face to face. She wanted to be able to read what he was thinking. 

Finally the bell rang to announce the end of school. As Nita left her math class, she heard someone come up behind her, "Nita?" A hand came to her waist and squeezed it slightly. A faint smile formed on her lips. They were back to their almost daily ritual.

Kit smiled back at Nita almost mockingly and kicked the back of her shin lightly, throwing her balance off just enough that he had to grab her arm to keep her from falling. Rolling her eyes a little, Nita quickly looked over her shoulder to meet his gaze. It was a difficult task while trying to make her way though the crowded school hallway.

"Kit."

"What's up?"

Nita smiled at Kit before ducking out of the throng of students over to her locker. She sighed and handed her books to him as she spun the lock. "Today's been okay. Where have you been all day?"

Out of the corner of her eye Nita could see Kit leaning against the locker as he straightened her books. He glanced up and looked at her, and Nita looked away as soon as the locker opened.

"Around, I guess. I was going to wait for you this morning but I got a ride."

"Oh," Nita paused as her backpack became stuck in her locker. "Well, that's okay. Do you want to hang out after school?" Standing full, Nita reached her hand out for a book, to which Kit handed her the top one on her pile. He looked at her curiously, trying to block out her thoughts. He wanted her to tell him what was going on, not find out the wrong way.

"Maybe for a little bit. I have to help Jen study for a test. We have one coming up this Thursday and she's still a little shaky on the functions." Giving Nita the last book, he picked his up again and began walking down the row of lockers to his. She slung her backpack over he shoulder and began down the hall. Nita followed closely behind Kit, quietly wondering about Jen.

"It's not a big deal Kit. I'm sure Jen needs help. Maybe we can hang out Friday… all three of us? I really want to get to know Jen. She seems—nice." Nita was trying really hard to like Jen. She didn't want to, but for Kit's sake it was the least she owed him.

"Sure, if you want to. I can talk to her today. Are you sure you don't want to come over for a soda or something? My mom hasn't seen you lately." He looked away from Nita as he fiddled around with the lock on his locker. "We just have a lot to catch up on. You know?" It popped open finally and Kit dug deep into his locker, removing more books and placing them in his backpack. "I'm sorry I left last night--you just fell asleep. I didn't know if I should leave a note or not, so I didn't. I figured you were tired."

Nita bit down on her lip hard. She didn't want to ask Kit, but she almost had to. "Yeah, it's okay." She was so nervous. "Thanks, Kit. Really, it means a lot to me for you to be there. And I'm sorry, for how I treated you. But um… there was something else I wanted to ask you."

Kit stopped what he was doing and looked up at Nita, raising his eyebrow.

"Um… well, you see. Homecoming's coming up really soon… like, three weeks. And it's sort of really not a big deal this year because there's prom this spring but—"

Nita cut herself off. Kit was giving her a funny look. "Go on."

"Well, I just figure I should ask you what you were doing. For the dance. And I guess the game too, because we should hang out at least at the game but I don't have anyone to go with for the dance yet." She let out a breath. She had done it, sort of. "Just as friends, of course." Kit nodded at her and stood up. He pursed his lips, looking very sorry.

"Jen asked me; today at lunch."

"Oh."

"Sorry Neets, really." Kit pulled her into a hug. For some reason, Nita felt like crying. The other half of her was relieved she wouldn't have to bother.

Nita pulled away from him prematurely, leaving Kit with a hallow feeling in his mind. "It's okay Kit. It's not your fault. I'm sure you'll have fun with Jen. I wasn't going to go anyway. Dairine and I have movies to catch up on anyway. I've been putting it off. And there's homework, I'm sure of it."

"Nita—"_  
_

"No, really. It's okay Kit. I got to go anyway. I'm going to go see Tom and Carl. Thanks. Have fun with Jen this afternoon. I'll talk to you later."   
Before he truly knew what just happened, Nita was walking quickly down the hall to the exit. He felt their connection becoming stifled as if she was putting up some sort of barrier against him. Kit felt alone all of a sudden, even though he saw Jen coming down the hallway to see him. He felt like there was something missing, but it wasn't just Nita walking away, it was something else. Something that Jen could never properly fill.

* * *

___  
Note: Action, explanations and dramatic adventures to come in the next chapter. This one was just fluff._

Note for the Note: ___I know my updating is next to nil as of right now, but I have other obligations that demand my attention. I hate to say this, but I can't promise many updates until summer. Anyway, this took so long to get out because I had to go back through the chapter and make a list of questions I have yet to answer as well as plot holes that need to be filled in the future. I just didn't feel like writing these past few weeks. That's sort of a lame excuse, but whatever. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews I got on the last chapter.____  
_

___Author's Third, and final, Note: ____I was sort of talking about this with my sister, but I probably won't update now until the weekend of Memorial day. I guess at this point I'm writing this story for her and maybe three other people, and I like that... but I don't like how many hits it has on it and no one can comment. Maybe I'm just crazy for getting mad about it, but 800+ hits for a story and only 13 reviews is not good. And this story isn't jibberish either. Reviews make me write faster and update sooner. I'd do it if I were you, and I do.  
_


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